Social » Healthy Community

People's physical and mental health is protected. Living and working environments are safe, and everyone has access to health care. Every opportunity is taken to recognise and encourage good health.

What is Healthy Community?

Good health is vital to well-being. Without good health, people are less able to enjoy their lives to the extent they might desire, their options may be limited and their general levels of quality of life and happiness may be reduced. Without good health and the ability to access healthcare, people are less able to actively participate in and contribute to the economic, social and cultural life of the region.

Healthy community is made up of 11 indicators that were selected to measure progress towards the healthy outcome definition (defined above). Data relating to each individual indicator (for the 2001 to 2016 period) is provided via the menu below. The index that measures change in the healthy community index (pictured below) shows the composite average of the individual indicators.

Healthy community, 2001-2016

What this means

Despite declining during the first eight years of the time series, the level the healthy community index reached in 2016, is a change of 2.5% compared to the 2001 result.

Avoidable hospital admissions

Why is this indicator important?

Every year people are admitted to hospital with conditions that could have been treated in a community setting. Avoidable hospital admissions are a proxy for people’s access to, and the effectiveness of, primary health care services. The rate of avoidable hospital admissions is affected by socioeconomic conditions such as housing quality and income, personal variables such as age and ethnicity, and geographic factors such as location and access to affordable health care in the community. Avoidable admissions are also influenced by the quality of primary health care and links between GPs and hospitals.

Avoidable hospitalisation rate per 100,000 people, 2012-2016

Findings

The avoidable hospitalisation rate in the Wellington region was 4,214 per 100,000 people in 2016, similar to the New Zealand rate of 4,352 per 100,000 people.

The avoidable hospitalisation rate in the Wellington region and in New Zealand overall has been relatively stable over the study period, with minor fluctuations.

Avoidable hospital admissions

Definition and data details

Indicator Definition

The number of hospital admissions which could have potentially been avoided by timely access to primary health care services or other ambulatory services such as outpatient services expressed as a rate per 100,000 people.

Data Source

Customised request from Ministry of Health

Last updated April 2017

Data points available only for 2012 to 2016. Indicators are updated in April and November each year; for those indicators where new data or survey results have become available.

The data provided on avoidable hospitalisations will undercount as the programme the Ministry of Health used to calculate rates did not include avoidable hospital admissions for conditions which are exclusively ‘population preventable’ including HIV/AIDS, oral and lung cancers, nutrition, and alcohol related diseases.

Rates are age-standardised.

While care has been taken in processing, analysing and extracting information, we cannot guarantee that the information is free from error and we shall not be liable for any loss suffered through the use, directly or indirectly, of any information, product or service.